Mark Catlin fears for football's future after devastating supporter blow hits Portsmouth, Sunderland, Ipswich, Oxford and Co

Prime Minister Boris Johnson today announced the scrapping of the reintroduction of supporters to sporting events from October 1.

Furthermore, with fears over a second wave of coronavirus infections, those plans could be shelved for up to six months.

Pompey had hoped to use Saturday’s visit of Wigan as a pilot scheme, utilising a capacity of 1,000 supporters.

In line with the government’s announcement, that trial has now been cancelled, although the League One fixture will still go ahead.

It means financially-struggling clubs will continue to be challenged to survive in the absence of any match-day revenue.

Catlin told The News: ‘As with all businesses, football isn’t unique, Portsmouth definitely isn’t unique. We are totally at the mercy of the government.

‘This is why I keep hammering the stability message.

‘As a club we have to remain consistent, keep working hard and just keep plugging through these disappointments – and hopefully as many clubs as possible can come out the other side.

‘But, with each month it goes on, I am now really starting to worry. Unless fans are going to be allowed back in or there is some form of bail out, I worry for the future of football generally unless something is done urgently.

‘We are stable, but even a club as stable as us are losing revenue at this moment in time. That’s £700,000-plus each month in lost revenue.

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‘That is a big hit for any company. We are doing our best, so far we haven’t made any redundancies, and we’ll keep trying to do the right thing moving forward.

‘But there is a bigger picture out there at the moment in trying to keep the club stable and on an even keel.’

There had been widespread optimism among football that the much-vaunted October 1 date for a proportion of supporters to return would be met.

Pompey themselves had been budgeting for 4-5,000 crowds next month, while maintaining social distancing within Fratton Park.

That would have entailed the opening of all four stands, as well as potential corporate facilities and kiosks.

Catlin added: ‘We were budgeting and predicting fans to be back in October. Unfortunately that is no longer the case.

‘Now we have to revert to another plan, which is back behind closed doors – and there is a lot of organisation which goes into putting those games on.

‘We are losing huge sums on a match day, even for a test event. While it wasn't about the finances, it would have at least brought in some form of revenue into the club.

‘It’s not just the test event, the budget for next month also goes again. We budgeted for potentially having 4-5,000 people in for some games.

‘Now that doesn't look like it will be the case.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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